Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Designating the deceased prince as emperor when passing the throne completely establishes the imperial lineage. This is a way to consolidate the succession rights of the crown prince, but there are still risks.

Zeng Chuqing, Shaoqing of Zongzheng Temple, pointed out:
"Under the system of primogeniture, not only do legitimate grandchildren and illegitimate grandchildren come first in the order of succession, but great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren also come before the legitimate eldest son's half-brothers and half-brothers."

"King Zhuang of Jin died at the age of seventy-seven, and his great-grandson, King Duan of Jin, succeeded him."

"The current King of Han also succeeded to the throne as his great-grandson."

"If something like this happens, I'm afraid the world will be unstable."

The consequences of Zhu Yunwen's succession to the throne as the crown prince have left the Ming Dynasty's rulers and ministers with lingering fears.

If a great-grandson came out to succeed the throne, they would feel even more uneasy.

Therefore, although the emperor's proposal to determine the order of succession was good, it could not completely dispel people's doubts.

Especially if a great-grandson is born in the future, and his name appears in the top five in the order of succession, it will make many people feel uneasy.

With the precedents of King Jin and King Han succeeding to the throne by their great-grandsons, no one could deny the possibility that both the crown prince and the crown prince's grandson would die and the great-grandson would be the only one to succeed.

Once something like this happens, it could be a disaster for the world.

Zhu Youjian also knew that with the advancement of medical technology, it was highly likely that there would be a long-lived emperor in the future.

The possibility of the Crown Prince and the Grandson outliving their lives, and the possibility of accidents happening to them, will increase as time goes on.

If the great-grandson, especially a young great-grandson, is enthroned according to the order of succession, not only will the people's hearts be unstable, but the emperor may also lose his power.

The Wanli Emperor ascended the throne at a young age, which led to Zhang Juzheng's monopoly of power and the peak of civil servant power. As a result, he continued to fight against the civil servants in power and ultimately failed to completely regain power.

The reason why Zhu Youjian was able to take power smoothly was thanks to his brother Zhu Youxiao, who used the eunuch party to defeat the Donglin Party, allowing him to calmly deal with the civil servants.

Zhu Youjian did not want his descendants to go through this process again, so he asked his ministers:

"So, what kind of inheritance system do you think should be implemented?"

The ministers discussed the issue and could not agree on it.

Some still prefer the system of primogeniture inheritance of the Tang and Song dynasties, believing that the ancient system is the best.

But more people refute this, because a legitimate grandson would make the position of the legitimate son insecure.

Just like what the emperor said, etiquette and law should prevent the evil of human nature. If the eldest grandson is killed, the eldest son will have no heir, which will be too tempting for the eldest son's half-brothers and half-brothers. This must be prevented.

However, the danger of a great-grandson succeeding to the throne was real. After all, the emperor was different from a vassal king and could not take this risk.

Finally, Liu Zongzhou proposed a solution, which was approved by many people:

"I think that if the Crown Prince has a son, Your Majesty can make his son the Crown Prince and make him coexist with the Crown Prince as the third in line to the throne."

"If the Crown Prince unfortunately dies young or passes away, the Crown Prince's other sons can be appointed as the Crown Prince according to the order of succession."

"Only when there are no descendants to establish a successor can a great-grandson or great-great-grandson be established."

This would safeguard the crown prince's inheritance rights and would also largely avoid the situation where a great-grandson would succeed to the throne.

Zhu Youjian somewhat agreed with this approach, but he still wondered:
"This means that the system of succession is no longer entirely based on the eldest son's line of succession. Should the system of succession for royal family members, nobles, and civil officials also be changed?"

Some people think that it should be changed because the royal family is a model for the world and everyone in the world should imitate them.

Some people think that it cannot be changed because it is unfair to the great-grandsons. Moreover, the King of Jin and the King of Han both had their great-grandsons succeed to the throne. Is it unfair to say that they succeeded now?
So the ministers discussed and discussed, and finally found that there was only one solution, which was the special theory of the royal family mentioned by the emperor:
Only by defining the imperial family as special can we prevent clan members, nobles, and civil officials from imitating and avoid chaos in the inheritance system. However, the civil officials did not want to fully acknowledge this, lest they could not use etiquette to restrain the emperor in the future. Grand Secretary Han Yu said:

"Since Emperor Chengzu, our dynasty has always followed the system of primogeniture, but there are also special circumstances."

"When Emperor Yingzong went north, according to etiquette and law, the crown prince should have succeeded to the throne, but at that time the capital was in danger and the country depended on the eldest prince, so the Prince of Qin was made the successor."

"I think we can add a clause in the succession law that states that the throne must be inherited by the oldest heir."

"As for the royal family, nobles, and officials, your majesty has guaranteed that they can inherit according to the rites and laws, so the clause of the country relying on the eldest son does not apply."

This explanation partially acknowledges the theory of royal specialness, but not completely.

Moreover, with the ancient saying "the country depends on the eldest son" as a basis and existing examples as support, most of the ministers agreed to add a clause for the royal family to the "Ming Dynasty Succession Etiquette".

Zhu Youjian also hoped to establish an older heir to prevent the young emperor from being manipulated, so he nodded and said:
"In that case, then it is determined that, apart from the crown prince who is canonized according to the order of succession, the rest of the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren can only be included in the order of succession after they are fifteen years old."

"If the second-born grandson or the concubine's grandson is canonized as the crown prince and succeeds to the throne, his descendants will automatically become the legitimate branch and the order of succession will be rearranged."

The implicit meaning is that even if the eldest grandson's line still has descendants, they are no longer a legitimate branch and lose their qualifications as the eldest son's son.

Take a historical example. After Prince Qin became Emperor Jingtai, his line automatically became the eldest son, and his descendants were ranked before the original crown prince Zhu Jianshen in the order of succession.

As a descendant of Zhu Jianshen, Zhu Youjian was not in a position to state this explicitly, but this did not prevent his ministers from understanding this point.

Now they can only be thankful that Emperor Jingtai left no descendants, and this rule will not cause succession disputes.

At the same time, in order to prevent powerful officials from welcoming the young emperor, Zhu Youjian also added:

"If the imperial court has no prince and no legitimate descendants, then when welcoming foreign vassals, the eldest prince must also be appointed."

"Only those royal family members who are fifteen years old and can rule the country can be included in the succession line."

"Determine the heir to the throne according to the order of succession."

At the age of fifteen, one can fully rule the country, which can largely prevent powerful officials from manipulating the government.

If another genius like Sejong appears, he can even take back power completely.

Since Sejong was exactly fifteen years old when he succeeded to the throne as a vassal king, this rule would not cause any succession disputes.

After discussion between the monarch and his ministers, they finally decided on the clause of the country's reliance on the eldest prince, which stipulated that all heirs other than the crown prince, the crown prince's grandson, the prince, and the emperor's younger brother must be 15 years old and come of age before they can be included in the order of succession.

The system of primogeniture in the royal family was thus fully established.

According to this system, the eldest son born to Zhu Youjian by Queen Zhou was undoubtedly the first in line of heir.

The two illegitimate sons born to other concubines are the second and third in line of succession.

Zhu Youjian had only three sons at that time, so the fourth in line of succession was not his heir.

And because his half-brother Zhu Youxiao had passed away, he could only trace back to the common ancestor, that is, his uncle and his descendants.

Prince Fu Zhu Changxun was the eldest among his uncles, so was listed as fourth in line to the throne.

Zhu Yousong, the prince of Prince Fu, is already 23 years old this year, which meets the requirement of being over 15 years old, so he is listed as the fifth in line of succession.

The names and order of succession of these five people were announced to the world every year after the establishment of the "Ming Dynasty Succession Etiquette", and when there were changes, the announcement was revised to let the world know who was qualified to inherit the throne left by Zhu Youjian in the event of his sudden death. (End of this chapter)